Funding open-access publications

Robert Kiley Head of e-Strategy Wellcome Library

BioMed Central Colloquium

Thursday 8th February 2007, The Royal College of Physicians, London, UK

Open Access: what is it about….Open Access: what is it about….

Improving access to peer reviewed original research literature

Improving the use of the literature and data

Improving research NOT about reforming the

publishing market

OA at the Wellcome Trust: policyOA at the Wellcome Trust: policy

All research papers – funded in whole or in part by the Wellcome Trust – must be made freely accessible from the PubMed Central and UKPMC repositories as soon as possible, and in any event within six months of the journal publisher’s official date of final publication

How do WT grantees comply?How do WT grantees comply?

Compliance can be achieved by following one of two routes: Route 1

Publish in OA/hybrid journal [preferred route]

Route 2 Publish anywhere - but self-archive a version of the author manuscript

(must include all changes that arise from the peer-review process) and make that available from PMC/UKPMC within 6 months

If a publisher offers neither route then Author can make revision to the journals copyright statement –

boilerplate language provided – and see if the publisher will accept this Look for an alternative publisher

Preferred route:

Use the OA option

Publisher deposits the published version in (UK)PMC

What does the Trust require when What does the Trust require when it pays an OA fee?it pays an OA fee?

Mandatory requirements Deposit, on behalf of the author, the final version of the manuscript - in

PMC, where it must be made freely available at the time of publication. Allow such articles to be mirrored to PMC International repositories, such

as UKPMC. Deposit the article in XML, along with all high-resolution images. Permit these articles to be freely accessed and re-used, subject to

agreed limits (for example, the commercial rights to the article would most likely continue to reside with the publisher).

OA increasingly seen as a service – which publishers offer to meet the needs of funders and authors

Publishers response to the Publishers response to the Wellcome grant conditionsWellcome grant conditions Significant number of commercial and not-for-profit

publishers now offer an OA option that is fully compliant with the Trust’s requirements (e.g. PLoS, BMC, Elsevier, OUP, CUP, BMJPG, Sage, Taylor & Francis)

Other publishers allow the author to self archive a version of the final article and make that available within 6 months (e.g. Nature, AAAS, AMA, Am. Physiological Assoc)

However, some publishers have policies that do not allow Wellcome-funded authors to publish in these titles High profile publishers that do not offer a WT-compliant policy include

the American Association of Immunologists, and the American Association for Cancer Research

Biomedical publishers: compliance with Wellcome OA policy

59%15%

16%

10%

WT compliant policy Active discussion

No policy Non-compliant

Source = RoMEO database

"Wellcome-compliant" publishers - which route do they offer?

17%

75%

8%

Paid OA option Self-archiving Both options

Source = RoMEO database

PubMed 4000 - compliance with Wellcome OA policy

70%

20%

5% 5%

WT compliant policy Active discussionNo policy Non-compliant

PubMed 4000 study analysed papers indexed by PubMed, and attributed to WT funding, and looked to see if these were published in journals that had a WT-compliant policy

How are OA costs being met?How are OA costs being met? The Trust provides additional funding to cover the costs of

choosing an open access option Block grants awarded to the “top” 30 institutions WT can also supplement a grant All grants have contingency funds which can be used to meet OA

costs OA costs can be used to pay individual APC fees and – where it

proves to be cost effective for the Wellcome Trust – OA “membership plans” (e.g. BMC)

80% of the research that is attributed to the Trust, also cites another funder Investigating the feasibility of asking the researcher to estimate the

relative contribution of each funder Whilst we are in this transition period, WT will – if required – pick up

100% of the OA costs for any research attributed to the Trust but more advocacy and awareness required

Only 22% of OA funds made available to UK universities in the year 05-06 has been claimed.

Total cost of paying for OA?Total cost of paying for OA?

Providing OA to all the research papers it helps fund will cost the Trust between 1%-2% of its annual research budget. Approx 4000 original research papers published every year. If

every single one of those papers was published as an open access article, with an average cost of £1650 per article, the total cost to the Trust would be £6.64 million; just over 1% of our annual research budget.

Trust is rarely the sole funder of a research team, and more than 80% of papers that acknowledge our support also acknowledge the support of one or more other funders. In time these costs will be spread throughout the research budget and fall below the figure estimated here.

Funder OA policy and attitude to OA article processing chargesarc Mandated. Max 6 month embargo. Articles must be made available via

PMC/UKPMC. Will pay article processing charges (APC) via grants.

BBSRC Mandated. Deposition at “earliest opportunity” in “an appropriate e-print repository. Will pay article processing charges (APC) via grants.

BHF Mandated. Max 6 month embargo. Articles must be made available via PMC/UKPMC. Will pay article processing charges (APC) via grants.

CSO (Scot)

Mandated. Max 6 month embargo. Articles must be made available via PMC/UKPMC. Will pay article processing charges (APC) via grants

CR-UK In development. Likely to be a mandate to ensure CR-UK papers are available within 6 months from PMC/UKPMC.

Dept Health

Mandated. Max 6 month embargo. Articles must be made available via PMC/UKPMC. APC’s – still under discussion

MRC Mandated. Max 6 month embargo. Articles must be made available via PMC/UKPMC. Will pay article processing charges (APC) via grants

WT Mandated. Max 6 month embargo. Articles must be made available via PMC/UKPMC. Will pay article processing charges (APC) via additional funds.

Other funders’ policies - UKPMCOther funders’ policies - UKPMC

ConclusionConclusion

They way original research papers are disseminated and made available is changing. Funders are demanding more; publishers are responding to this

need

In the UK, biomedical research funders have agreed a common approach to OA, and now have the infrastructure in place (UKPMC) to help realise our objectives.

“Ensuring that the outputs of research are freely available to all is the best way to maximise their utility. Open access is good for science, the research community and mankind” Sir John Sulston, 2006.

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/openaccess